Technical Field
This application relates generally to delivery online of content from multiple content provider domains using a shared infrastructure,
Brief Description of the Related Art
Distributed computer systems are well-known in the prior art. One such distributed computer system is a “content delivery network” or “CDN” that is operated and managed by a service provider. The service provider typically provides the content delivery service on behalf of third parties (customers) who use the service provider's infrastructure. A distributed system of this type typically refers to a collection of autonomous computers linked by a network or networks, together with the software, systems, protocols and techniques designed to facilitate various services, such as content delivery, web application acceleration, or other support of outsourced origin site infrastructure. A CDN service provider typically provides service delivery through digital properties (such as a website), which are provisioned in a customer portal and then deployed to the network. A digital property typically is bound to one or more edge configurations that allow the service provider to account for traffic and bill its customer.
Cloud computing is a model of service delivery for enabling on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g. networks, network bandwidth, servers, processing, memory, storage, applications, virtual machines, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or interaction with a provider of the service. Available services models that may be leveraged in whole or in part include: Software as a Service (SaaS) (the provider's applications running on cloud infrastructure); Platform as a service (PaaS) (the customer deploys applications that may be created using provider tools onto the cloud infrastructure); Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) (customer provisions its own processing, storage, networks and other computing resources and can deploy and run operating systems and applications). Users of cloud-based services have come to expect an “instant-on, no-waiting, do-it-yourself” experience that is controllable, open, and paid for on an “as used” basis. Due to this ease of use, a single cloud service customer (e.g., a website hosting provider) may provision hundreds or even thousands of third party digital properties using the cloud provider's “do-it-yourself” configuration mechanisms.
“Cloud providers desire to use CDN service providers to provide cloud customers with a better overall performance for their websites. The existing configuration models for these businesses, however, are not aligned, because the 2nd party model used by the CDN service provider (wherein the CDN customer is billed for traffic) does not easily accommodate the third party model associated with the cloud provider (wherein the cloud usage often applies to multiple third parties). Stated another way, the various digital properties that use the cloud services are not customers of the CDN. Yet, the CDN service provider (and, in particular, its edge configurations) must be aware of these third party digital properties if the CDN is to deliver them properly.”